Mobile bar coded boarding passes and cinemas to lead the way

Juniper Research

March 14, 2011

Mobile bar coded boarding passes and cinemas to lead the way

Juniper Research

One in every eight mobile users worldwide will either have a ticket delivered to their mobile phone or buy a ticket with their phone by 2015 -- over 750 million users -- according to the latest analysis from Juniper Research. This compares with approximately 1 in 20 now (230 million). Ticket delivery will be by SMS, bar codes, mobile web, smartphone apps or near field communication (NFC).

Mobile ticketing users are currently concentrated in a number of early adopting transport schemes in Japan, Central & Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, but the report determined that opportunities for mobile ticketing will spread right across the transport, sport, entertainment and events sectors.

The Mobile Ticketing report[2] pinpointed the next two years to 2013 as the key period in which mobile ticketing will transition from a minority experience to become mainstream as the mobile plays an ever growing role in all aspects of airline travel, rail travel, festivals and cinemas.

Report author Howard Wilcox pointed out: "Mobile technology is moving the ticket machine into our pockets. Our research demonstrated that mobile ticketing will change the way that many people buy and obtain their regular, every day tickets that are mostly printed at the moment. We foresee strong acceptance driven not only by airlines but also cinemas and some sports events: Bar coded boarding passes are a clear case in point."

Juniper’s report contains five year forecasting for all the key market parameters including users, transactions and values for transport, sport and entertainment ticketing. Additionally the report highlights conclusions from analysis of 24 vendors addressing the market, which culminates in a new strategy positioning matrix.

The report also predicts that the number of primarily developed regions will see penetration of up to one in five users by 2015, and points out that growth constraints include existing ticketing infrastructure and danger posed by poor user experience.